In 1973, the United States Supreme Court dealt the civil rights
movement a harsh blow when it decided in Rodriguez v. San
Antonio Independent School District that education was not a
"fundamental interest" under the federal constitution. The Court
refused to invalidate Texas’ system of school financing, even
after noting that schools in poor, predominantly minority districts
were able to spend only half as much on their students as schools
in affluent white communities. Civil rights advocates at the time
had anticipated a victory in Rodriguez as a critical next
step in realizing the vision of Brown v. Board of Education,
since initial attempts to desegregate the public schools had made
clear that equal education opportunity could not be realized
without sufficient funding for schools attended by poor and
minority students.
The federal courts’ abandonment of fiscal equity reform
relegated any possibility of legal advances in this area to the
state courts. But resort to state courts traditionally had been
shunned by civil rights attorneys because of... (preview truncated at 150 words.)

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